


Monsters

by catness



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 22:52:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catness/pseuds/catness





	Monsters

Station Commander's log, date 78.95.8E12. The radiation levels are still dangerously high, but we have to repair the station, otherwise we're dead. We can't rely on any help from the headquarters; the subspace communications network is down, all the exits have been blocked and sealed since the accident with the reactor, and there's no way to open them before bringing the central computer back online.

I've dispatched several maintenance teams to the lower levels in order to clean up the contaminated areas, including the flooded sections, and to restore the life support. The engineering team is busy patching computer systems back together.

The situation is grave, but all the personnel is putting their best efforts to fix the damage, and I'm confident that we will get the station under control and running again in no time.

***

Intruder alert in an hangar on the first level! The air lock doors have been forced open from the outside - only briefly, but enough to allow the unauthorized access. At first I hoped it was the arrival of the long awaited help, but the error became obvious when reports on the murders started to come in. I presume that the enemies were attracted by the explosion, realizing that the station became vulnerable. Judging from the reports, they're either non-humanoid or use sophisticated cloaking technology, as they're visually undetectable except for their weapons, which are similar to ours, but the invisibility gives the intruders a tactical advantage. They are violent and aggressive, they do not negotiate and do not take hostages. 

It's difficult to estimate how many of these monsters are out there - it may be one, it may be a few dozen. The alerts keep going off at various parts of the station. Sending reinforcements is problematic because the power is fluctuating and most of the elevators between levels are not operational. I've instructed all the teams to be extra vigilant, to carry weapons at all times and to shoot at the first sign of danger. 

***

An urgent call from my assistant working in the secondary data center on the third level. "Hey boss, I found a backdoor in the subspace relay firewall, and you just gotta see this!"

"What is it?"

"I dunno, it's weird, but it's almost like..."

His voice is cut short by a burst of machine gun fire. I hear grunts and screams, sounds of heavy objects falling and crashing, and then there's only crackling line noise. Bloody hell.

I hurry to the data center, all the way down to the third level, running through the dim corridors with flickering lights, climbing the dark and deserted elevator shafts. I'm yearning to shoot, burn and tear to pieces anybody who crosses my way, but unfortunately, I don't stumble upon any enemies.

The huge sliding doors are wide open, revealing the carnage inside. I walk to the console, carefully stepping over the corpses scattered around the floor. The man whose voice I've heard just a few minutes ago is sprawled in front of a shattered monitor, half his head is missing, the rest is a bloody mess. His outstretched arm, sticking at a weird angle, is pointing towards the demolished control panel, the lifeless fingers clutching something small.

I pry his fist and see a keycard. I pick it, wipe it of the blood and put it into my pocket. Nothing can be helped here; I make my way back upstairs.

***

We are losing the battle. The monsters are nearly invulnerable. Shooting at them defers the attacks but not by much. We don't have the resources to take care of the dead; the corridors are littered with mutilated bodies, marking the trail of the invaders. My men are fiercely determined to defend the station to the last breath, but they are overpowered. More and more intercoms switch to line noise. The lower levels are now completely silent, like gigantic sarcophaguses.

Restoring the network is my last hope - security systems could deal with any threat, but they are useless when offline. My eyes burn from staring at the consoles for the past few hours, but it seems that I'm onto something.

However, I'm running out of time. I can already hear the gunfire outside the control room. The enemy is at the door.

***

The subspace relay comes to life: green light is merrily blinking, indicating that the link is up. "Please insert the keycard." I slide the card from the data center into the slot, and an unfamiliar menu pops up. There's a list of files I have never encountered before. I discover the station map and a comprehensive description of the reactor accident. The headquarters never contacted us, how come they're aware of our situation? And how come they don't give a damn? Of course, we would've been perfectly capable to handle the problem by ourselves if not for the monsters break-in.

More files; a set of photos documenting the invasion in all the grisly details. I recognize all the victims - these are my men, attacked while performing their duties, shooting back, collapsing on the floor. I am almost unsurprised to see myself on the last photo, raising from the console to meet the gun barrel hovering on the foreground.

More files; readme.txt, installation instructions, the user manual. There's no time to read them all, but I piece all the information together and my mind explodes in realization. The reactor accident, the radiation poisoning, the alien invasion and the bloodbath - everything was designed and programmed by those who are really in control, those who use us to satisfy their predatory instincts. Our world was created solely as their playground. They are people. WE ARE THE MONSTERS. 

I hear the doors whooshing behind me and get up from the console, the gun already in my hand. And here it is - no torso, no face, no eyes to look into, only the black nozzle hovering in the air, just like the screenshots. My finger is on the trigger. And then I freeze. There's no point. Nothing I could ever do or say can reach the other side of the screen - the faceless and nameless entity which came here to destroy me without even considering me a person, which does it for fun, from the comfort of its chair, over and over again.

The gun fires.


End file.
